"I've served my time in Hell"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Fred, I haven't unearthed the 1916 text yet, but here are notes I made on the poem.

"Our Hitch in Hell." The author was Frank B. [Bernard] Camp (1882 - ?1967), and the poem appeared in his collection, _Mexican Border Ballads_ (Douglas, Ariz.: F. B. Camp, 1916). It was revised and reprinted in Camp's _American Soldier Ballads_ (L.A.: G. Rice & Sons, 1917). A Google search reveals that it was more than once adapted and passed on anonymously.

Will search further (have just finished moving) and post the 1916 words when I find them.

JL



Fred Shapiro <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Fred Shapiro
Subject: Re: "I've served my time in Hell"
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On Sat, 7 May 2005, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> I know the name of the author of this line, but can't bring it to mind.
> Somewhere in the house I have a Xerox of the original publication and
> will search for it today.

Any thing you can do would be most helpful.

Fred


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Fred R. Shapiro Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
Access and Lecturer in Legal Research Yale University Press,
Yale Law School forthcoming
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu http://quotationdictionary.com
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